Hook and loop discs and it's Advantages
Hook and loop sanding discs are commonly used with orbital sanders. They've largely replaced the older adhesive discs that might be screwed on the machine. They provide several distinct advantages over the old method.
What is Hook & Loop Disc?
Hook and loop Sandpaper features backing made from cloth, almost like Velcro. It's used to attach the sandpaper to a machine like a random orbital sander or disc sander.
A category of sanders is made to be used with hook-and-loop sandpaper, while some are used with hook-and-loop converter discs. You can buy hook-and-loop sandpaper in various shapes, most ordinarily discs, although star-shaped and triangular pieces are available.
From coarse to superfine, all sandpaper grades are available in a hook-and-loop form to be used with power sanders.
How does hook and loop disc work?
Hook and loop systems are essentially comprised of two components:
A "hook" side and a "loop" side.
- The hook side is rougher and crammed with very tiny hooks.
- The loop side is a smaller amount coarse with clusters of hairy loops.
When these two components are pressed together, the hooks catch the loops and bind the strips together.
Hook and loop discs are made of several different monofilament materials: nylon, polyester, and polypropylene. The hook side is made by sewing nylon, which is extremely resilient, under hot infrared.
Advantages of Using Hook & Loop Discs
Speed
It's much faster to vary, or replace, hook and loop sanding discs on a sander. All you need to do is pull them off for the replacement. They're attached with velcro so that they couldn't be easier to get rid of. With a disc attached by screw, changing discs was an involved procedure. You had to unscrew and take away the old disc before reversing the whole process with the new disc. It regularly took 2-3 minutes.
With an adhesive disc, things move faster. You had to tug off the old disc, carefully line up the new one and press it down, and that they didn't always stick properly. You'd only discover that once you began to use one. Hook and loop sanding discs take just a couple of seconds to connect to a disc and stay very firmly seated. Removing them is just a matter of pulling them off.
Reliability
Older sorts of sanding discs are susceptible to failure due to weak adhesive on a stick-on sanding disc, making it useless very quickly. With a screw-in disc, tears from the middle hole which will rip the disc apart are common. Hook and loop sanding discs aren't susceptible to such failures. The velcro keeps them secure, and once positioned, they don't move easily.
Flexibility
Hook and loops sanding discs are available altogether grits, making them ideal for all types of jobs on wood, metal, and more. In other words, they're a viable alternative to the old methods. If a disc remains viable, it's effortless to reuse it, which wasn't always true of the old techniques. You have to set the disc aside until you next need it, and there's no danger of adhesive drying or a middle hole ripping.
Price
Hook and loop sanding discs are a touch costlier than other sanding discs on the market. The convenience of use quite offsets the increased price. These discs save time and lead to fewer wasted discs and are very widely available in hardware stores and online.
Efficiency
You can buy hook and loop sanding discs with both pressure holes and without. Either way, they're equally as efficient as other sorts of sanding discs, regardless of the grit. The standard will vary by brand, and a few are going to be better than others.
Conclusion
Hook & Loop discs are an integral part of industrial abrasives. The above article describes almost all the concerned aspects of hook & loop discs and orbital sander pads. If you have any query or want to buy the product, contact us at 877-841-1837
John Hall
August 27, 2023
Can I attach a Hook & Loop Disc to a 6inch 14mm sanding disc alternatively can I replace what I have with say a 14mm Hook 7 Loop disc.Your advice here would be greatly appreciated.
Regards John